The Marathon

With this weekend (hopefully) set to produce a slough of great marks, I've decided to have a separate post to cover the results of the Dubai Marathon, just completed.

Only one mark--the winner, Tsegaye Mekonnen Asefa's time of 2:04:32--made my T&F Record Book.
And he did so in a BIG way!

Asefa's time broke the Age 18 record by 1 minute and 35 seconds!!
In fact, it's the fastest time by anyone under the age of 21!

He also moves into 12th place on the World list.
Removed from the list (Top 24) was an icon--Paul Tergat, with his former WR of 2:04:55 from 2003!!

With Tergat's removal, all 24 on the list ran their times from 2008 on.
This is truly a tsunamic sweep of old marks off of, and new marks onto, my World DDD!
Only "new" events, such as the women's steeplechase, pole vault, and javelin (because of the change in the implement itself!) have seen such massive alterations.
Here's some interesting stats from my World and USA DDD's for both men and women.

Men--World DDD

Besides the 1 new mark from 2014.....
9 are from 2013
7 are from 2012
4 come from 2011
2 from 2009
and 1 from 2008!!
(NOTE: My DDD's include Boston course marks!!)

Now check out the difference in the United States DDD for men!

First, not even the Boston course AR of Ryan Hall (2:04:58) makes the World list!
Just 6 marks come from 2002 on.
Three are from the 90's.
13 are from the 1980's!!
And two, Jeff Wells's 2:10:15 from 1978, and the iconic Bill Rodger's PR of 2:09:27 from 1979, are from the 70's!!
(Frank Shorter, two-time Olympian, just misses the list!!)

There are too many reasons why this is.
But I believe that if some of the sub-28:00 10K guys would run one (Like Meb & Ritz have!), we would see a bunch of 21st century guys crack that list!!
And I'm talking about the USA list.....NOT the World list!
Those dudes are too far ahead for US guys to even THINK about invading their territory!!

Now for the women.

There are currently 25 women on my World DDD--because there is a two-way tie at 24th place!
Eighteen women have broken 2:20:00.
Just 5 have cracked 2:19:00.
And only the WR holder, Paula Radcliffe, has broken 2:18:00!!

The oldest mark is Tegla Loroupe's 2:20:43, run in 1999, and it's tied at 24th place with 1 other.
So it's almost certain to be OFF this list by the end of the London race!

Just 1 mark is from 2013
9 come from 2012.
Two come from 2011.
There is one mark from 2008.
And the remaining 11 marks come from the years 2001-2006.

Incredibly enough, the USA women have done better than the USA men in this century!
MUCH better!!!

Thirteen marks on the USA Top 24 hail from this century!!
And 11 remain from the previous century.

The oldest mark is Patti Catalano's 2:27:51 from 1981.
It ranks 13th A-T USA.
There are 14 US women under 2:28:00.
But just 4 have gone faster than 2:25:00!!

I'll say the same thing about the women as I said about the men.
I wish more sub-32:00 10K women would run a serious marathon!
Also, as with the men, I doubt US women are going to make much inroads on the World DDD list any time soon!!

The marathon has been revolutionized!
But US men and women are still recruiting troops and gathering weapons!!

Be back with a blog (or two??) in the next couple of days!
Can Mary Cain break the American Indoor Mile Record??

Come back here for all the details!!